124 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



and the Yojoa Polychrome periods are in all probability the direct 

 results of this cultural and physical amalgamation. 



We have at present no means for dating the exact period repre- 

 sented by these Lenca and Jicaque styles which apparently stem from 

 Nicaraguan and Nicoyan culture centers to the south. On the other 

 hand, there is in the nearby Maya city of Copan a series of dated 

 monuments ranging from 9: ii.o.o.o (stela 3). to 9: 17. 12.0.0. (stela 

 C) (or, roughly, according to the Goodman-Thompson-Martinez 

 correlation, between 650 and 800 A. D.), in association with which 

 there occur pottery vessels (Vaillant, 1927, and Lothrop, 1933, p. 66 

 and 1936 b, p. 69). We have attempted to correlate our Ulua and 

 Lake Yojoa Polychrome series with Vaillant's classification of Copan 

 wares, but owing to the selective nature of the Copan collections, as 

 well as the paucity of illustrative material, this has proved imprac- 

 ticable for the present. The Copan ceramic series in the Peabody 

 Museum, as a whole, seems quite distinct from the Ulua- Yojoa Poly- 

 chrome wares, although numerous similarities do exist. Vaillant points 

 out the occurrence of Ulua Polychrome sherds at mound 36 in Copan, 

 a point we were able to verify for ourselves at the site, but there is 

 reason to believe that these deposits are later than the Copan series or 

 perhaps intrusive. According to Vaillant (1927, p. 271) the trend 

 of the Ulua Polychrome wares " suggests the years after the fall 

 of Copan." If this is the case, it may serve to point out when the 

 Maya Old Empire dispersal into Salvador and northwestern Honduras 

 took place and how their developed polychrome wares came to be 

 grafted on to those of the Lenca, Jicaque, and, probably, the Pipil, 

 with whom the various Maya groups settled. When adequate strati- 

 graphic studies of the entire range of Copan ceramics have been made 

 and correlated with the ceremonial series from the stelae vaults, 

 described by Vaillant, there is reason to believe that the Ulua- Yojoa 

 Polychrome series may also be approximately dated. 



Such excavations should also throw light on the origin or deriva- 

 tion of the southern Mayoid Polychrome ceramic tradition. Did it 

 arise from a groundwork similar to the Playa de los Muertos cul- 

 ture in the Peten, perhaps at Uaxactun or Holmul, spread from there 

 to Copan, and thence to Salvador and the Ulua ? Or are there inter- 

 mediate stages between the developed Polychrome and the Playa de 

 los Muertos horizons present but as yet unknown in Honduras, at 

 Copan, or in Salvador? An even more basic problem concerns the 

 suggested relationship between the ceramics in the oldest horizons 

 at Uaxactun in the Peten and Chukumuk in the Guatemalan high- 

 lands, with the Playa de los Muertos Bichrome and Ulua Bichrome 



